Does this sound normal for teething?

[froggie23]

Dd is 6 months old and has been generally offish for a few days now. Started with an eczema flare up, then sickness and diarrhoea. The sickness stopped quickly but the diarrhoea has persisted for a few days. She has her first tooth coming so I presumed these things could be linked.

She has woken up a few times screaming in pain, like something is really really hurting her. She's usually a settled sleeper so it's clear something is bothering her enough to wake her up.

She has no temperature, is still feeding well and seems happy and alert when she's awake so I haven't been overly worried until now with the night time screaming. It was really horrible. I will obviously make a GP appointment tomorrow but in the meantime I wondered if anyone else's dc suffered this badly with their teeth? Calpol does seem to ease her back to sleep.

Sounds exactly like my DS. The nighttime screaming especially. We didn't go to GP though as he would've been upset during the day also if it was something else. Teething is worse at night because they're lying down, kindof like a toothache or earache. Always worse when horizontal!

Nurofen is much more effective for teething. And now she’s six months, get hold of some Anbesol liquid, not the gel it’s not as good. Those things combined will be magic.

@NairobiGal thank you for replying. It's really hard to see my GP at the moment but I am getting worried because of the other symptoms too. Was your dc unwell in other ways too? She has had diarrhoea one and off since Sunday which isn't great but luckily she is still feeding and having wet nappies so hopefully not dehydrated. Along with the rash and the obvious pain I've just been getting really worried. I did manage to see out of hours GP for the rash however and they confirmed eczema. Can that be triggered by teething too?

No idea re the eczema. I wasn't implying you shouldn't see your GP though, that's totally your call and if you feel something is wrong they will NEVER mind seeing a tiny baby. My son had loose nappies, screamed a lot, threw up his milk a little more than usual, but wet nappies and happy most of the time so wasn't worried. Good luck! Hope you're managing to get some sleep in the day.

There is no evidence teething causes pain or temperatures. The first adult molars comes in around 6 behind the baby teeth and we don’t have loads of 6/7 year olds with “teething” issues and it’s the exact same process of the tooth erupting. At around the ages for initial teething children do start lose the innate immunity from mum or breast feeding reduces so viruses start to affect them more. Similarly to actual toothache general virus/illness can be worse at night due to being stuffed up.

Whether it’s teething or virus doesn’t make much difference, treatment is calpol but I try and give people this info so symptoms don’t get dismissed as teething over all else.

Hope DC feels better soon!

Nope, I see what you’re saying but teething absolutely does cause pain and discomfort in babies.

I kind of thing tummy bug too. But it's coincidental it's occurred at the same time as the tooth. It's horrible when they can't tell you what's wrong and they are clearly in pain.

I did read that there is no evidence to suggest teething directly causes diarrhoea but I do remember very loose, distinctive smelling teething poos with my other dc and this is very similar. However my other dc were nowhere near as severe as the tummy issues dd has been having and they generally coped with teething much better too.

I remember when my wisdom teeth were trying to erupt and every time I bit down and caught it it would go all red and sore and be painful all day.

There's no evidence to suggest teething causes pain.

When wisdom teeth get sore it is because the overlying gum gets food stuck under it and gets inflamed. It's nothing to do with the actual eruption. You've also had 28 other teeth erupt in your mouth from 6 upwards and you don't see children walking around with eruption pain

You may get inflammation similar in a baby although unlikely food is getting stuck at 6months. Some anbesol should sort it. But there's no association with diarrhea. Don't dismiss your child's illness because there's also a tooth coming through. Teeth take quite a long time to erupt so it's not unlikely that during that period a 6 month old baby also gets a virus.

My daughter (10 months) recently had a few nights where she was waking up repeatedly screaming. She's not a great sleeper at the best of times but it's normally just disturbed then crying rather than this. She was in our bed so we know it was straight from sleeping to screaming, really distressing sounding.

Also a couple of very rank nappies. Then three teeth in three days and she's in back to normal habits!

We use ibuprofen as well, and Anbesol when she's really upset (liquid as previously said).

This is interesting because NHS website says they can be in pain and to offer paracetamol or ibuprofen (not arguing with you, just find it odd it'd be on there with no evidence it causes pain). Are we all giving our kids ibuprofen and paracetamol unnecessarily? The pain I had from my wisdom tooth was before it had even broken the gum, but was because when I bit down the tooth underneath was obviously trying to break through and it would get all red and inflamed. Was bloody horrible! Was a relief when they finally came through.

The thing is the not knowing. I hate it. It makes me really anxious. I'm not sleeping because I'm constantly listening out for her or waiting for her to scream.

I have two older dc who are significantly older and when they were younger it was a lot easier to see a GP. My surgery is a nightmare to get through to and even if you do it's not often you get a same day appointment even for kids.

I'm trying to rationalise that she doesn't have a temperature and she has been alert, awake and happy. If it were serious I think there would be more constant and worrying signs. But the ongoing nappies and the screaming is really awful.

My dd got viral infections basically every time she had teeth coming. GP told me that teething can make them more susceptible to viral infections (and sometimes they can get sick from rubbing their gums on things that are not very clean such as a toy or teething ring that fell on the floor) but that teething alone does not cause severe pain, fever, diarrhoea or rashes (other than around the mouth if they are drooling a lot).

If it started with eczema flare up, could it be an allergic reaction to something in her diet or a medicine?
The eczema could just be coincidental and it’s a tummy bug. If you haven’t already done it, maybe look up what you’re supposed to do for tummy bugs/ gastroenteritis on the nhs website?

@SuTissue I did think this but she hasn't had anything new. No change in wash powder or anything like that either. She's only really had her milk as she's been so unsettled with her tummy that I've put weaning on hold until she's better.

It seems to suggest that you ride it out providing there are no signs of dehydration but we've now had 3 days of diarrhoea so I'm starting to wonder how long I let it go on for.